The Role of Forest Resources in the Development of a Non-Egalitarian Fisher-Gatherer-Hunter Society in Southwest Florida
Open Access
- Author:
- Haney, Jennifer
- Graduate Program:
- Anthropology
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- February 08, 2019
- Committee Members:
- Lee A. Newsom, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
George Robert Milner, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Douglas Warren Bird, Committee Member
Sarah McClure, Committee Member
Alan R Graefe, Outside Member - Keywords:
- Calusa
Caloosahatchee
Florida
Archaeology
Fuelwood - Abstract:
- The Calusa have anthropological significance as a group of sedentary, fisher-gatherer- hunters that historically developed a socially and politically complex society in Southwest Florida. Much of the anthropological theory related to the development of socially complex societies is predicated on the differential access to and control over resources. Coincident with this theory of differential access to resources is the ability to access or control non-kin labor in order to increase or intensify production of subsistence resources and/or non-subsistence goods/services. The productivity of the local maritime environment in Southwest Florida was one key factor in the socio-political developmental process; however, these maritime resources are now known to have varied spatially and temporally. The necessity of adapting to and coping with this variation in resource availability and productivity likely played a role in the development of technological advances and socio-political networks among the Calusa. The strategies employed by the Calusa predecessors, who ultimately manifested in this historically complex society, are less well documented. This dissertation examines one potentially limiting but renewable resource, fuelwood. With limited fuel alternatives, wood would have been the primary source of fuel in the largely circumscribed, estuarine environments of Southwest Florida. Trends in archaeological wood taxa as well as functional and ecological wood anatomy were used to investigate the influence of human extraction and natural disturbances on the fuelwood supplies. Modern mangrove forest surveys were also conducted in the project area to create a comparative data set of mangrove forest structure and composition. Although not all temporal periods were equally represented in the examined charcoal assemblage, the temporal span of the sample was approximately 900 BC – AD 1500 from nine archaeological sites. Hypothesis testing focused on four broad topics including the characteristics of the fuelwood assemblage, the impact of severe hurricanes on fuelwood resources, the extent of harvesting pressure, and differential access to non-coastal fuelwoods. Despite the availability of a number of superior fuelwoods, prehistoric groups in southwestern Florida used predominantly two types of fuelwood – hard pine and black mangrove. On average, six to eight wood types were identified within each temporal period at each site examined. Deposits with higher numbers of wood taxa were identified as historically mixed/disturbed or likely hurricane-related deposits. Importantly, there did not appear to be a linear relationship to changes in the diameter size classes that would have indicated the overharvesting of fuelwood resources through time. Finally, differences in the frequencies of wood taxa between two midden-mound complexes at the Pineland Site Complex during the Caloosahatchee IV period (AD 1350 – 1500) suggested that one group had differential access and use of pine at the site.